


The heartwarming celebration

by magiinemagiine



Category: Inazuma Eleven: Ares no Tenbin
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-25
Updated: 2018-05-25
Packaged: 2019-05-13 14:49:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,504
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14750937
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/magiinemagiine/pseuds/magiinemagiine
Summary: Haizaki Ryouhei spent his birthdays alone in his later years more often than not. In his mind, it was better being alone than sharing his bad attitude with people that cared for him. His mind spent too much time on the darkness that surrounds him, but he was blind to the light in his friends at Seishou Academy. At the end of it all, it was for his own good not to take their friendship for granted.





	The heartwarming celebration

“.…” 

It was early morning and yet again he’s woken up by outside noise. This time his least favorite, _vehicles_ driving by fast, either eager people on their way to work or just straight up crazies. His entire body was covered by his blanket, a blanket mind you, that had the overhead penguins repeated in a pattern through and through. His groaning was getting louder with each passing car, making him slowly turn over so that he’d be laying on his back now, furiously removing part of the blanket to reveal his messy grey hair and his tired eyes. If the cars weren’t enough, here came his second enemy in the morning, the loud alarm on the desk beside his bed. Haizaki was prepared, he trained long and hard for this exact moment. Once the alarm rang even once before it could repeat, he punched it quickly so that it shut off and fell onto the ground. 

“…Finally,” he spoke in an exhausted tone. His room was dark because of the strong shades keeping the sunlight from seeping through his windows. After spending an hour in bed doing nothing, he decided to finally muster some energy to sit up properly, scratching the top of his messy hair and reaching for the phone near where the alarm was supposed to be. The screen was bright, not bright enough to make his eyes squint, although they did grow at the sight of the amount of notifications he was receiving from his teammates of Seishou. With each swipe he’d see the small ‘Happy birthday’ messages from the members, glaring at them with each passing one. “These guys…”

By the end of the scrolling, he tossed the phone lightly at his side, sitting back and going into deep thought. It was difficult for him to tell what was bothering him; the fact that all his members actually bothered to message him, or the fact that the only people missing in his notifications were Kidou and Mizukamiya, the two who looked out for him the most. The nerve of those two! How could they! These thoughts were clashing in his mind against the other thoughts that told him hey, maybe they don’t really care at all! He took hold of the pillow behind him to grip onto tightly, groaning some more before tossing it at the wall ahead. 

“Screw those guys! Now I’m _definitely_ not going to practice, heh…” He grabbed the blanket and finally placed it aside, standing up and stretching his arms widely before cracking his knuckles and walking towards the door to commence his morning routine of getting dressed and ready to go. Haizaki would much rather spend this day by himself and not communicate with many people. To him, his birthday was simply a day like any other, a day not worth making a huge deal over. He’d be too embarrassed if he were to bother ever celebrating it anyways; it felt pointless. With so many problems right now in the world of his favorite sport, his childhood friend still not entirely healed, there was no point of feeling any sort of happiness. These constant thoughts clouded him from the biggest source of light that he was oblivious to, the team that was Seishou. After getting dressed into his track uniform, he walked down his stairs slowly and grabbed his practice bag from the kitchen table, hanging the strap over his shoulder. He held the handle of his refrigerator gently, opening it and remembering that he forgot to bring groceries for himself yet again. All that remained was a small apple that wasn’t enough to replenish him for the day. Slamming the refrigerator's door, he shoved the apple into his bag and finally walked out of the front door to begin his lonesome day.

“So, do you think he’s really gonna come today? I’m starting to doubt it.” Mizukamiya was seated with Kidou at one of the tables in the dining room of their practice facility, his chin rested on his hand while he stared at the rest of the members preparing decorations all throughout the room for the surprise party they had planned. Kidou chuckled, both arms folded while he shared the same view as the captain. 

“Hmm. Maybe he won't, but everything is still worth a shot, Mizukamiya. Even this. Besides, we train hard enough, sometimes it’s good to spend our training doing livelier activities such as this. I learned that long ago.” Kidou was confident in his words as always, his smile also as confident as his voice. 

Hearing Kidou’s thoughts made Mizukamiya worry less and smile more, nodding in agreement and standing up from the seat. “Well, I can’t argue with you when you speak like that. I’ll leave the rest to you then, I want to help the rest wrap things up. It’s the ‘captain’ thing to do, no?” Followed by small laughter. 

Kidou stood up right after the captain, turning around and walking away. “I guess I’ll go get the heart and soul of the party. I don’t know what flavor he likes, but, I’ll think of something…” Kidou oversaw getting the right cake for the party. Now of all times he wished Haruna was in here sooner, he could really use the assistance when it came to shopping. Nonetheless, Kidou made his quick disappearance. 

Not too far from the training area, Haizaki was seated on a small bridge where he could watch things from afar, kicking both legs back and forth and munching on the small apple that he brought with him, a meal that didn’t last too long at all. Once he got to the apple’s core, he simple held his hand out and let it go, watching it fall into the lake down below. The phone in his right pocket began to vibrate out of nowhere, Haizaki becoming alarmed. Taking the phone out, he grinned a little when he saw who it was that was trying to call him, none other than Kidou himself. 

“Aww, let me guess, he wants me to come to practice or else he’ll make me do something stupid in our next game…” He put his phone on silent and shoved it into the pocket again, now staring at the lake angrily. Haizaki felt as if he had two figures on each shoulder, one telling him to hurry his ass to practice and the other one pleading him to stay here all alone and that it’d be the better option. Haizaki looked down at his lap with a calmer expression, slowly pulling out his phone yet again and looking through all the birthday messages that were sent to him by his comrades. His heart felt warm, it felt so warm that it made him angry. It made his body shake so much that he was actually enjoying the comfort in these messages. At this very moment, if he didn’t go bother going to them right now he’d feel awful for the rest of the year, and maybe even his next birthday too. 

“… Damn it.” He made the effort of getting up, dusting the back of his pants and strapping the training bag tightly around his chest, running off as quickly as he could to the academy. Sudden rain began pouring as he ran, but it wasn’t going to stop him from arriving at where he needed to be. It felt right, to be with his friends on such a day that he never truly cared for. It felt right knowing that there were still people that he could count on, people there that truly cared for him no matter how annoying or troublesome his attitude was. It just felt right. It feels right. He smiled weakly upon coming to terms with his choice.

Everyone at the dining room were already finished preparing the decorations, all of them eagerly waiting for Haizaki hoping that he would end up coming. It almost felt like all their efforts were for nothing in the end. Then came the loud presence that was all too familiar.

“…. I’m here now!” Haizaki rushed into the room, his hair completely soaked and the water dripping on the floor. His panting was heavy, but it began to calm down when he saw all the happy faces that were on his teammates. Each person had confetti poppers, setting them all off at the same time once Haizaki was inside. Haizaki watched the confetti fall all over the place, trying his best to hold back the tears from even shedding once. 

Kidou approached Haizaki slowly, holding the large chocolate cake in his arms and offering it to him. “Happy birthday, you trouble maker.” 

Kidou now held the cake with his right hand, using his left to lift his goggles up to show his comforting expression in full. Not too far behind Kidou was Mizukamiya, smiling and nodding at Haizaki.

Haizaki sighed in slight relief, holding the cake along with Kidou, making eye contact with everyone else, Mizukamiya, and lastly, Kidou himself.

“… Thank you, guys.”

**Author's Note:**

> HAPPY BIRTHDAY HAIZAKI, WE LOVE YOU. so does kidou and mizukamiya, very much.


End file.
